By Lisandra Paraguassu

Sao Paulo: Brazilian federal police have arrested an alleged Mexican drug boss, prosecutors said on Wednesday, in a blow to one of the most powerful organisations in Mexico's criminal underworld.

According to the arrest warrant, police detained Jose Gonzalez Valencia, 42, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), with the intention of fulfilling a US extradition request.

Presidio Beach in Aquiraz, Fortaleza, Brazil.

Photo: Aquiraz Tourism

Once a little-known gang, the CJNG has grown in recent years to challenge the Sinaloa Cartel of captured kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman for primacy of the drug trade in Mexico.

Valencia, known as "Chepa", "Camaron"and "Santy", was arrested at Aquiraz, a resort near the coastal city of Fortaleza, best known for a beach called Presidio (jail in Protuguese).

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Mexico's drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Photo: (Mexico's federal government via AP, File)

Brazilian media reported he had rented a beach house in the town where he was spending the Christmas holidays with his family.

Valencia had been living in neighbouring Bolivia for two years after fleeing Mexico and he had entered Brazil as a tourist using a Bolivian passport, the statement added. Local media showed a document they said was a Bolivian ID card for foreigners, issued on a false name.

Valencia is suspected of distributing drugs in the United States.

An official at the state prosecutor's office in the western Mexican state of Jalisco said Valencia is the brother of Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, a CJNG leader captured in February 2015.

Jalisco is where the CJNG established itself and serves as a base for much of its operations.

The Jalisco official said Valencia was due to be extradited straight to the United States from Brazil.